Cisco teaching European electricians how to cope with the Internet of Everything

Cisco will roll out a new curriculum to electricians across Europe that helps to give them the skills to deal with the millions of new devices that are a part of the Internet of Everything [IoE] revolution.

The company’s Networking Academy IoE curriculum is designed to equip electricians with the Internet protocol [IP] skills to service Smart Grid devices, such as Smart Meters, as they generate 100,000 to 500,000 new jobs across the continent over the next five years.

“The IoE Networking Academy Smart Grid curriculum is a practical step to qualify the Smart Grid installers of the future accelerating the impact IoE will have in Europe and around the world,” said Piotr Pluta, corporate affairs, Cisco EMEAR.

The fact that there will be around 240 million meters across the continent that need exchanging by 2020 pushed Cisco to roll out the new curriculum and it fills the Europe Information Communications Technology [ICT] skills gap.

“In Europe, we know that the demand for ICT workers is outstripping supply,” said David Bevilacqua, VP of the South region, Cisco EMEAR. “We recognised that the IoE will create further demand for higher-paying, skilled jobs and we are creating a specific curriculum that addresses these opportunities.”

The IoE Smart Grid curriculum is aimed at qualified electricians and practitioners in electrical engineering as many don’t have IP network competencies and qualifications. It is one of 16 courses that are part of the Cisco Networking Academy programme that was first established in 1997 and trains around one million people a year with the skills needed to succeed.

Targeting the Internet of Things or IoE sector is a sound idea as the market is projected to hit around 26 billion units by 2020 according to Gartner and any education linked to it will be extremely lucrative.

Cisco plans to release the curriculum in German later this month before rolling out various international versions throughout this year and into 2015 with the end goal to accelerate the implementation of new infrastructure and applications.